Prayer
(US); (UK) | Production =10418 | Writer =Justin Monjo | Director =Peter Andrikidis | Guests =Raelee Hill (Sikozu, Stark); Melissa Jaffer (Noranti, Rygel); Jason Clarke (Jenek); Sandy Gore (Vreena); Sacha Horler (Morrock) | Episode list = | Prev =A Constellation of Doubt | Next =We're So Screwed - Fetal Attraction }} John and Scorpius visit the unrealized Moya for information on Katratzi, while Aeryn Sun is tortured and interrogated by her Scarran captors. Synopsis Aeryn is in a dark room, alone, knelt on the floor. "There was one guard. I don't remember her face. She never told me her name. She told me a legend about how Sebaceans once had a god called Djancaz-Bru. Six worlds prayed to her. They built her temples, conquered planets. And yet one day she still... rose up and destroyed all six worlds. And when the last warrior was dying, he... he said, 'We gave you everything, why did you destroy us?' And she looked down upon him and she whispered, 'Because I can.'" On Moya, Scorpius and John are walking to Command. Scorpius tells John that Aeryn could be dead, but John is sure he'll find her before the Scarrans can mind-rape her until she has no allegiance to him. Scorpius asks what John's plan is. He tells Scorpius that when he met Einstein, he blipped to bizarro Moya. It was the same Leviathan, but different, and the Stark there uttered "Katratzi." He thought it was gobbledy-gook, but then Sikozu heard the same word before Aeryn was kidnapped. Since Scorpius doesn't know the location, he figures that if Bizarro Stark knows its name, he may know where it is. He says that's his idea, but he's open to anything better. "If I help with this insanity," Scorpius says, "and we do get Aeryn back, you will tell me all you know about wormholes. Every equation. Every formula." "Everything," John replies. Scorpius cuts John's finger and then his own, dripping the blood. He says it's a Scarran blood vow. "You hate everything Scarran," John asserts. Scorpius responds by sucking the blood on his finger. Aeryn is in chains, in a cell on a Scarran ship. Knowing that she's not the sort of person to ask such a thing, she asks Djancaz-Bru to send her a sign that "he" is coming for her. A Scarran enters with a Sebacean nurse, asking if she's ready to answer her questions. She says something in Scarran, presumably derogatory, and he lashes out with his heat projection, asking her where Crichton is. She persists that she doesn't know, but he tells her to stop resisting, and asks again. Aeryn tells the Scarran that John is on Moya. He asks what she knows about Crichton's wormhole research. "I don't know anything. He didn't tell me anything," she responds, in pain. His nurse tells him to stop and he asks what the problem with this one is – is she weak or is she faking? The nurse assures him she is not faking, and he tells the nurse to convince her to tell him what she knows, when she wakes up, if she wants to live, or he will start again. "You're going to go to the variant Moya?" Ka D'Argo asks. Chiana says that he could end up on Earth again and mess up everything, but he is sure that he won't – he has a hum in his head, like a whale. D'Argo says he thinks John should have rest, but John says that he has a hum in his head and he will follow it. Einstein told him that he can get back to the places he's been to before; it's like a homing beacon, he can make it. Chiana tells him that he can't go with Scorpius, he'll screw John then betray him. She asks Scorpius why he is going and he replies that he and John have an agreement. D'Argo asks what, but Scorpius says the details are confidential. John tells them that he knows what he's doing and he knows it's stupid but it's out of his hands. "Just get us close to the wormhole. If we don't come back... right," he says. The nurse enters Aeryn's cell, where she's strapped into a chair. "Feeling better?" the nurse asks. Aeryn says critical heat delirium. The nurse tells her that she almost couldn't reduce Aeryn's temperature in time, but she thought that Peacekeepers were supposed to be battle-strengthened, and asks why his heat probe almost killed her. Aeryn says she's tired, and tells her to go away. "I wish I could," she whispers, telling Aeryn that the Scarran will kill her unless she gives him reason not to. "I've seen it happen. You'll be just another DIT – Died in Transit," she says, adding that she's just trying to save Aeryn's life. Aeryn asks if she's really Sebacean, and asks if it makes it easier to make the others do her dirty work while she takes the coward's choice. The nurse says she's heard all that before, but she's not chained up in a cell. She realized a long time ago that with Peacekeepers and Scarrans, who rules doesn't matter – it wouldn't be her. She is going to survive, and suggests Aeryn do the same. She lets Aeryn know that she will tell Captain Jenek that Aeryn is ready for another interrogation. John and Scorpius are in his pod, and Pilot tells John that Moya senses the wormhole is destabilizing. Scorpius says that he was just musing that if John misses his intended target, they could change the future, or the past. "Create a world devoid of Peacekeepers and Scarrans. Would you like that, John?" John ignores him and focuses, saying goodbye to Moya. Chiana wishes him luck, and he enters the wormhole. John navigates, saying the directions and concentrating. They exit the wormhole, and Scorpius asks, "Where exactly is 'here'?" Jenek tells the nurse that the signal from Aeryn's bioloid stopped before they could detect the Leviathan. The first question he will ask her is how they detected it so quickly. The nurse tells him that there is something about her, since her reaction to his heat probe was so severe, but he tells her that he doesn't care if she dies. The nurse tells him to give her one arn, as she has an idea of how Aeryn still might be useful to them. Jenek tells her she has one arn, then Aeryn answers or dies. The nurse tells Aeryn she has something to make her sleep and goes to inject her. Aeryn's struggle is futile, but realizes that the nurse isn't giving her something; she's taking. "What have you done?" she asks, distressed. John tells Scorpius, as they're spinning in his module, that some kind of crap has frozen up the fluid drives. John asks, for the record, what John would have done with information and the ability to control wormholes. "Taken over as much of the universe as possible, found your home planet, and destroyed it," he replies. John says that's not funny and Scorpius then goes on to say he would use wormholes as a deterrent against any future Scarran attack. John tells him to strap himself in and gets the module back in operation, re-entering the wormhole. John navigates and they come out again. "Is that the Moya we're looking for?" Scorpius asks of a Leviathan in the distance. "Better be – my head's ringing like a fire bell." Jenek is interrogating Aeryn with more heat probing. He asks how she knew they planned to kidnap Grayza. After more prodding, she says it was an accident. The nurse rushes in and tells him to stop. He persists, but she insists, "She's with child. Scarran heat probe will kill a pregnant Sebacean." Jenek makes the connection that Aeryn was close to Crichton... Sikozu tells D'Argo that he should have stopped John, and that Aeryn is dead. She knows Scarrans – she is dead by now. Furthermore, Grayza knows the location of this wormhole. Rygel agrees with Sikozu, saying Grayza knows John would come back here. D'Argo tells them they're staying for another arn and tells Pilot to have Moya make constant scans and to let him know the moment she senses anything. Jenek asks the nurse if she can retrieve incumbent knowledge from the fetal DNA. While she can't do it here, she says the med labs on Katratzi may be able to. Aeryn hears and asks what they've done. Jenek says that if this is Crichton's child, they could learn all he knows about wormholes from his fetal DNA. Aeryn screams at them to get her out. Aeryn is back in her cell, asking Djancaz-Bru again because she doesn't think she heard her the first time. "Just get a message to him. Let him know where I am so that he can find me." One of her cellmates says that she didn't think Peacekeepers had gods. She thought they believed in the Warrior Code. Another prisoner asks if there's a Peacekeeper here and if she can help them, but the other prisoner says Aeryn can't even help herself; she's praying. The nurse comes in and asks Aeryn whose child it is, saying that Captain Jenek will force it from her. He believes that if he can find the human's child, the Scarrans will reward him. "Right now he's dreaming of palaces and virgins." "I'm very happy for him," Aeryn retorts. The nurse warns Aeryn that unless she tells Jenek what he wants, he'll make her wish she were dead. Aeryn says she has dozens of embryos in side her, but the nurse refutes her claim, "Just one. Whose is it?" "No, really," Aeryn says, "'PK Tralk Girl,' that's what they used to call me." The nurse tells her to talk to the other women, adding that they can keep her drugged, asleep. Or they can make things hard and ugly – worse than she can imagine. On bizarro Moya, John tells Scorpius, "Every wormhole has millions of exits to different times and places which are complete and unending." He tells Scorpius that it's like everyone went into a blender. "Why?" Scorpius asks. John tells him that with wormholes, anything is possible. They look in to the galley, as John tells him they better hurry before Crais comes in and slaughters everybody. Scorpius catches his first glimpse Sikozu-Stark, and Noranti-Rygel. One of the prisoners is telling Aeryn about how the Scarrans find something interesting about them and then see if they can produce an offspring that they can use. They bred her six times, and three died before term, the other three are far away. Her "speciality" is that the organic food on her planet grows a metal skin that she can dissolve with saliva. Aeryn tells her to dissolve the restraints, but she can't, as the metal is too thick. "Right," Aeryn says and is suspect that she just happens to be awake to talk to her. The prisoner says that she palms the stuff the give her to sleep and she's saved up enough so she can kill herself whenever she wants. She realizes that Aeryn thinks she's working for the nurse, but says the Scarrans don't need her; you can't beat them. They travel prisoners around on freighters so that no one ever knows their exact location – no one can save them and they can't escape. She says she tried for cycles, then gave up. She recognizes that Aeryn still thinks someone is coming, but says that in here you should talk to all you've got. On bizarro Moya, John brings Sikozu-Stark to a maintenance bay, telling him he heard her say the word "Katratzi". Sikozu-Stark persists that she doesn't know, but John tells her she said it when Chiana was killed. Scorpius offers to take over the interrogation, but is quickly told to shut up. John tells Sikozu-Stark that he heard her say a Scarran word, "Katratzi," and he thinks it's a military base. He asks if she knows the location, but she persists that she doesn't know. He tells her she said it when she was crossing someone over, in the trance state, but she tells him that she has no recollection of what she says when she's doing so. Scorpius asks how she could say something in Scarran, and Sikozu-Stark indicates that she must have crossed over a Scarran at one time. She says that only when in the trance does the knowledge come flooding back. Scorpius leaves, telling John to keep her here, because he'll be right back. The nurse is showing Jenek a display of Aeryn's reproductive structure. The Sebacean egg is fertilized, it splits with life, splits again, then stops. The ovum secretes a fluid that jeeps the pregnancy in stasis, literally freezing life, and the proto-fetus can be stored for up to seven cycles before triggering gestation. The nurse prepares some type of serum, but Aeryn tells her not to use it, as she'll tell her what she wants to know. "You wouldn't lie to me?" the nurse asks, then injects her. Aeryn then tells her that of course she'd lie, before she can restrain herself. She tells them that she doesn't know whose child it is. She tells him that there was another man – Velorek, but he's dead now. He was executed for treason because she betrayed him. Jenek does not believe her and orders the nurse to use more serum. Following another injection, she admits that Velorek is not the father and she lapses out of consciousness. The nurse tells Jenek that she can't wake Aeryn up until more of the serum wears off. He gives the nurse a heat probe and she ensures him that she's working for him. Jenek turns his attention to the prisoner and the nurse reports that her DNA scans show no enhancements to the embryo. As Aeryn suddenly opens her eyes, while the prisoner objects saying it's too early to tell, Jenek destroys her child with a heat probe, adding that unless he gets what he wants, Aeryn will be next. Scorpius brings Noranti-Rygel to the bay and reaffirms that Sikozu-Stark can channel past memories when she crosses a soul over. She says yes, so Scorpius grabs John's pulse pistol from its holster and shoots Noranti-Rygel. Scorpius tells Sikozu-Stark to cross her over and tells John that they'll all be dead in an arn and they don't have time to negotiate. Sikozu-Stark says she can't cross her over – she has to love the soul, she has to care about where it goes. John is confused, but Sikozu-Stark says she's always had to love the soul. "Different Stark, different rules," John asserts, asking her what happens if she doesn't love the soul. She says she can't cross them over without love – they just die, nothing happens. "Whoops," John says to Scorpius. Aeryn asks the prisoner if she's in pain. She says it's the third one they terminated – she saw it on the scan, it must have been malformed. She says the three that survived were beautiful and healthy. "And you've had six pregnancies?" Aeryn asks, since she earlier said she'd already had three terminated. The prisoner says they'll wait a while, then fertilize her again. She asks if Aeryn's had a child, but Aeryn explains that she vowed never to have a baby in the Peacekeeper's environment. She says that now protecting this child may end her life. The prisoner says there is another way – she's hoarded enough sleeping pills for them both, but she's never been brave enough to do it herself. Aeryn asks her name. "Morrock." Aeryn says that when someone comes to get her, they can save Morrock, too. Walking through a corridor, Scorpius asks who Stark loves, but John tells him that he cannot just shoot people. Scorpius finds his priorities odd, saying that these deformities are preordained to die soon. "Who does Stark love?" he asks, "Just because you do not have the resolution to..." John cuts him off, saying he has the resolution, but sometimes he does not like the way Scorpius does things. Waiting near the wormhole, Pilot tells the crew that he's been coming John every thirty microts, but the wormhole is destabilizing. Sikozu tells D'Argo that Grayza is no fool and they will die if they stay here much longer. D'Argo says that he doesn't know how long they'll wait and Chiana tells Sikozu to back off. Sikozu tells them they should wake up Noranti and vote because Crichton is safe, but they will die if Grayza finds them here. D'Argo says he is not willing to make that decision, but Pilot says he may have to – Moya's scan has picked up another vessel coming this way, but he can't tell if it's military yet. Jenek asks the nurse if he has matched the embryo DNA, but it's a pattern the memory banks have never catalogued, so it could be half-human. They don't have a sample of Crichton's DNA. Aeryn offers to tell them, to end her pain. She says that while she was off Moya she was an assassin, and there was a man named Lechna. He was her contact and also her lover. She says she tried to suppress it until now to protect him, but it is most likely his conception. He is from a place called Vendrall, a small planet off most charts. Jenek has heard of it and the nurse crosschecks the DNA with matches from that area. Scorpius has Aeryn-Chiana, but John tells him they'll do it his way, not Scorpius'. D'Argo-Jool comes along with a gun, asking what John is doing with Chiana. "That is Jool," John tells Scorpius. He tells D'Argo-Jool to let them pass, but Scorpius urges John to shoot him. D'Argo-Jool starts firing, forcing John to shoot him. John asks if Scorpius is satisfied, but he says no. "Very messy." Jenek has Aeryn injected and tells her she lied. They found record of Vendrall DNA, and it did not match. "There is no Lechna," he tells her. She persists and Morrock sticks up for her in the background. Jenek orders more and more doses of serum, despite the nurse telling him he will kill the child. Aeryn tells him that she was on Moya watching John and as soon as she left she went straight back to Lechna. "I have never... ever loved John Crichton," she says. "You lie. Tell the truth." Aeryn says that when she left Moya, with terminal soldier Lechna she completely forgot about Crichton. We see a flash of her remember kissing John. Pilot tells D'Argo that although it's a way off, the vessel seems to be a command carrier. Sikozu wants a starburst now. Chiana suggests using the engine signature change like before. Rygel says that a Scarran freighter would attract a Peacekeeper attack. Chiana says they won't let them get that close. If they do a long-range scan, they'll move off because they're not Moya. D'Argo says it's worth a shot and so they vote. Sikozu and Rygel vote to starburst, but Chiana, Moya, Pilot, and D'Argo say to stay. Scorpius asks John if he's sure it will work. John says that is how it happened before; Aeryn-Chiana died and Sikozu-Stark channeled the Scarran when crossing her over. John says he will do it, but Aeryn-Chiana asks what John is doing. Sikozu-Stark says that if he kills her, she won't cross him over. John says he will, because in half an arn, they will die anyway and he can't stop it. John pulls out his pistol, and Scorpius assures him it is not Aeryn. "It looks a lot like her," he says. Aeryn-Chiana thinks it's a joke and says John has to stop because he can't kill her. She is right, John can't, but Scorpius can and grabs his hand and pulls the trigger. John hits Scorpius, as Sikozu-Stark screams. Aeryn tells Jenek that she doesn't know if it is Crichton's child. He begins a heat probe, but the nurse objects, saying he'll kill her. "Who is the father?" Jenek asks. Aeryn says that on Vendrall she met a man, but can't hold it up. As she froths at the mouth, she tells Jenek, "There is no Lechna. I made him up. Just Crichton. Only ever Crichton. Just him." Sikozu-Stark enters the trance while crossing over Aeryn-Chiana and says Katratzi. John asks if she knows where it is. "Seat of Scarran power," she says, "Small. Fortified. It's dangerous. Disguises its presence by mirroring the orbit of one of the moons of Trilask." Scorpius says he knows that planet and tells John that they can go now. The pair leave, after John looks closely at Aeryn-Chiana and Sikozu-Stark. Morrock wakes Aeryn up, out of her restraints. She says she watched the codes. She brought Aeryn the pills and they take them together. Morrock thanks her for doing this with her. Aeryn asks what other choice she has. She'd rather be dead than let them have her child. "Is it really his? The man you loved?" Morrock asks. Aeryn asks her if the pills make you tired. "At first, but then..." "You know I had such incredible dreams for my child. It's impossible not to. How she was going to change the world, how she was going to look after me when I was old. They were so foolish," Aeryn says. Morrock says they weren't and that she had the same dreams. She asks again if it is Crichton's child. Aeryn draws her closer. "Did you really have a child?" she asks. Morrock says that she had six pregnancies and only three survived. Aeryn grabs her by the throat, "I want the truth. I know that these pills won't kill me. I know that you're their spy, so I want to know the truth. Have you even had one child? Have you ever given birth to one child? The truth." Morrock says no, and Aeryn snaps her neck, saying, "Then I orphan no one." John and Scorpius arrive back at Moya, telling them they know where the base is. Since the command carrier is on the way, they catch John's module in the docking web and starburst immediately. Jenek tells Aeryn that they've set a course for Katratzi. The nurse tells her they've been informed of her condition and there is a surgeon on hand. Aeryn, kneeling on all fours, raises her head as they exit. "Now, Djancaz-Bru, you haven't listened and you haven't helped. And I'm running out of time. So I'm going to forget about you. I am now willing to make a deal with anyone, with anything to save my child. Not because I can... but because I have to." Memorable quotes * :Aeryn: There was one guard... I don't remember her face, she never told me her name. She told me a legend about... how Sebaceans once had a god called... Djancaz-Bru. Six worlds prayed to her. They... built her temples... conquered planets. And yet one day she still... rode off and destroyed all six worlds. And when the last warrior was dying, he... he said... 'We gave you everything. Why did you destroy us?' And she looked down upon him and she whispered... 'Because I can.' * :John: I got a hum in my head; I'm going to follow it. :Chiana: Well you got something in there. It's not a brain. * :Chiana-Aeryn: Okay... the joke's over. Okay? I, uh... I was stupid to take it this seriously... 'cause it's a joke. Right? You ha- you have to stop because... because you can't kill me. You... you can't." :John (Lowering his pulse pistol): No. No I can't. :Scorpius (Using the pistol and firing): I can. * :(Scorpius and John encountering Jool-D'Argo) :Scorpius: Shoot him. :John: Technically, it's a "she". :Scorpius: Shoot IT! Background information * Noranti does not appear in this episode. However, Melissa Jaffer still appears as Rygel/Noranti in the Unrealized Reality. * Adding the scene in which Scorpius shoots the alternate Rygel was intentional and done to remind the audience of Scorpius' edge. ( ) * Andrew Prowse noted that this episode was "probably the closest translation from script to screen of any Farscape episode." ( ) * The shot of the fake abortion was cut from the UK transmission. David Kemper had earlier expressed concerns on the scene until it was pointed out that it was later revealed that the abortion was a fake. ( ) * Claudia Black stated that the original plans for her flashbacks would have shown her and her lover "humping against a wall." ( ) * She described the chair she had to sit in as something out of . Foot holes had to be drilled into the Tim Ferrier designed torture chairs at the last minute to help the actors recover between scenes. Ferrier worried, needlessly, that the producers would not like the chairs after their construction. ( ) * David Kemper was so impressed with Jason Clark's performance as Jenek, he had him written into the final episodes of the season. ( ) * Despite Sikozu-Stark being played by Raelee Hill and sounding female, Crichton insists on referring to the character as "he." It was also previously revealed that this Stark was romantically involved with Aeryn in this unrealized reality ("Unrealized Reality"). Later, he refers to D'Argo-Jool as "she" although Scorpius prefers "it". * Crichton and Scorpius, for reasons unexplained, are able to have the run of the ship on the "bizarro Moya", including firing weapons and killing people, without interference from Pilot or the DRDs, but this could possibly be because it would interrupt the tension of the scene and cause interference irrelevant to the plot of the episode. Links and references Starring * Ben Browder as John Crichton * Claudia Black as Aeryn Sun/Chiana-Aeryn * Anthony Simcoe as Ka D'Argo/Jool-D'Argo * Gigi Edgley as Chiana * Wayne Pygram as Scorpius Guest stars * Raelee Hill as Sikozu/Stark-Sikozu * Melissa Jaffer as Noranti-Rygel * Sandy Gore as Vreena * Sacha Horler as Morrock * Jason Clarke as Jenek/Lechna Guest cast * Louise Crawford as Prisoner * Michael Duncan Puppeteers * Peter Jagger * Mat McCoy * Mario Halouvas * Fiona Gentle * Virginia Weule * Tim Mieville Voice artists * Jonathan Hardy as Rygel * Lani Tupu as Pilot References arn; baseball; bioloid; Bizarro World; blender; Callus Nebula; Chicago Cubs; Command; command carrier; comms; docking web; Djancaz-Bru; dominar; dreadnought; dren; Earth; Einstein; fahrbot; Farscape-1; fek; fekik; frell; gnink; Grasshopper; Grayza, Mele-On; heat delirium; heat projection; Human; Katratzi; Kung Fu; Lechna; Leviathan; mafia; mezcal; microt; Moya; Nosferatu; ore freighter; Peacekeeper; Peacekeeper High Command; Pip; pulse pistol; Rekka; Romeo and Juliet; Scarran; Scarran blood vow; Sebacean; Shakespeare, William; Skreeth; stallik; starburst; Stark; Stykera; Superman; tellik; tralk; Trilask; unrealized reality; Velorek, Tam; Vendrall; whale; World Series; wormhole; wormhole technology; External link * Category:Season 4 episodes